101 Ways to Move Forward After a Midlife Divorce
Tip #5 of 101 Ways To Move Forward After Your Midlife Divorce:
Stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world. Read the Wall Street Journal. Read sections of the newspaper you don’t ordinarily read. Read about the culture and “What’s Happening” in your town. Spend time at the bookstore looking over all the special interest magazines on the shelves. We might not need a physical makeover as much as we need a “Big World Involvement” makeover. I’m always amazed at all the fascinating, intriguing new things going on out there. Today, discover something new to be excited about!
Further thoughts:
Today, in the Wall Street Journal in the Personal Journal section is an article entitled “Botox for the Resume: One Woman’s Image Makeover.” Go to www.wsj.com and pull it up and read it. I am 61 years old. The article is about a woman 49 who is having trouble getting a job because of her age. (Sigh). However, the piece by Christina Brinkley went on to say “Looking young isn’t the key: Attitude and knowledge of today’s world are just as important.” When I went back to college in 1993 to finally get a degree I started in 1964, one of my first marketing and advertising class professors advised us to “Get a subscription of the Wall Street Journal and read it every morning. Read the center column on the front page if you don’t have time to read anything else.” He continued, “If you’re going to be in the world of marketing and advertising, you need to know what’s happening out there.” I took his advice, and now reading The Journal is part of my morning ritual. Journal articles are well written and the Marketplace and Personal Journal articles keep me abreast of cultural trends. Sue Shellenbarger’s column is eerily on the money for women our age. She wrote an article on “What to do when you have a child who is sick and you absolutely have to be at work.” (That day I was staying with my daughter’s two children because her son was sick and she had a job interview she could not miss.) Just a bit ago Sue did an article about college graduates moving back home. The night before, we had moved my youngest son (who graduated in May) back into his room so that he could work on a business deal with my husband who has an office at home. (It is really getting weird the way her articles often are exactly where I am in life, either with myself, my children, or even my grandchildren!) Jared Sandberg does a column on Cubicle Culture about work-place situations. (His entry from 4/15/08 is “Dreaming Up a Dream Job.”) I occasionally send him a middle-of- the-country opinion from my “cubicle” at home. I usually skip the Money & Investing section, but I find the editorial pages and the main section indispensable to what’s really going on in the wider world. I start the coffee, get the WSJ off the driveway and start my business day with it. I then glance through our local paper with its overly pessimistic headlines and I read my favorite comics. The point here is that it’s even more important now for all of us after a midlife divorce to stay up to date with what’s happening on our planet. Plus, it’s energizing to find out more about your world. The world beyond your personal situation. You discover new ways to make a difference. You are encouraged by what you “see” others doing. You get tips and pointers on doing things better. If you can’t afford The Journal, go to your local library and read it. Today, do something to get an-attitude-and-knowledge-of-today’s-world makeover. Be aware of the trends. You don’t have to adopt everything new fad you see. In fact, it would be ridiculous to do so; but at least be aware of what’s going on in this big, wide, amazing world. You might find something you really want to sink your teeth into!
